Hans J Marter

7 March, 2007

THE FREIGHT vessel Buffalo Express has been chartered for another livestock shipping season this year after it became clear that only a first batch of the new livestock containers will be in service by September.

The announcement by northern isles ferry operator NorthLink came yesterday (Tuesday) following a meeting with Scottish transport minister Tavish Scott, on Monday.

Both sides also agreed a three point action plan that should lead to a reduction in the number of sailings between the northern isles and Aberdeen that are disrupted due to poor weather and tide/swell conditions at Aberdeen Harbour.

NorthLink managing director Bill Davidson said the company had now made the decision to charter the Buffalo Express for an initial period of six weeks to give farmers and crofters confidence in the service.

The new dedicated containers for livestock transport have had their first showing to the farming community in Orkney and Shetland during the last two weeks, and the developer Cronos has now taken on board a number of suggestions to further improve the prototype containers.

An informal working group to resolve the remaining design issues has been set up.

Mr Davidson said the hope was that by September up to three dozen of the new containers could be in use on the company’s own fleet.

He added: "We thought it right and proper that we should announce now that Buffalo Express would be operating during the livestock season.

"I was keen to provide a degree of comfort to farmers who might have been concerned that all of the new containers might not be ready in time and that they may have faced serious transportation issues at this most important time in the agricultural calendar."

Mr Scott added: "It is important that everyone keeps working hard on this to produce a livestock handling system that meets with the regulations.

"It is important that we get the right system that is efficient and ultimately affordable for crofters and farmers."

Mr Scott yesterday also issued a statement saying that NorthLink was committed to improving services to the freight industry in Orkney and Shetland.

This followed a week of disruptions and delays on the lifeline routes due to poor weather, which left the isles' seafood and haulage industry fuming.

On Monday, both sides agreed to:

- improve communications with hauliers, including website, texts and regular phone calls and meetings;
- to put in place procedures to use alternative ports if Aberdeen is temporarily unavailable;
- to nominate a contact for haulage industry in case of disruption.

Mr Davidson said last night the company had already started thinking about the use of alternative ports.

But he warned: "Bear in mind, too, that the same alternatives might not apply for freight and passenger use. There are advantages and disadvantages for the available alternatives."

It is understood that the company looks at Rosyth, Invergordon but also Scrabster as an alternative port of call.

Mr Scott added: "Lessons have been learned and we have agreed a way forward."